


Plus One

by TortiTabby



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, School Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-12 20:41:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15348303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TortiTabby/pseuds/TortiTabby
Summary: Dan is Phil's plus one at his University Class Reunion





	Plus One

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @quercussp on tumblr
> 
> Paraphrased Prompt:  
> Dan is Phil's date at a wedding/reunion where all the people are Phil's old friends and colleagues. Dan sees some of Phil's past and has to acknowledge that there was a big part of Phil's life before him.

“You're sure they want me to come with?” Dan was asking, worrying his lip as they sat in the back of the taxi on the way to the hotel they would be staying at while they were at York, entirely too late to back out or change his his mind.  
“It said plus one and you're my plus one.” Phil laughed and grabbed Dan's hand. “I'm bringing you. I didn't ask permission.” He stroked the top of his hand softly.  
They arrived and dumped their luggage off in their room. It was still fairly early and Phil was typing away on his phone, no doubt making dinner plans with some of his old classmates they were here to see.  
Dan washed up in the bathroom and by the time he came back Phil had changed his shirt and looked ready to go.  
“Ready to go?” Phil asked.  
“I am if you are.” Dan slinked over and tucked his hands in the back pockets of Phil's jeans.  
“It feels weird being here with you.” He admitted with a quiet laugh.  
“It feels weird just being here. I can't believe it's been ten years already.” Phil said. He seemed deep in thought and went to turn away but not before Dan read the look on his face.  
“I'm sure they're all excited to see you.” He said, spinning Phil back towards him with his hands firmly in place.  
“Are you holding me hostage in front of you by my ass, Daniel?” Phil giggled, sticking his tongue out in the endearing way that drove Dan mad.  
“I am. Don't think for a second there's anyone here that isn't excited to see you. Let's go to so you can brag about your life.” He slapped Phil's ass lightly for good measure, ignoring the teasing reprimanding that was sent his way for doing so.  
  
  
Twenty minute later and they were outside of what appeared to be a rather high class hotel the reunion was being held in.  
“You look fine.” Dan said when he saw Phil glance down at his plaid button up in worry.  
Phil glanced over and gave him a blinding smile before looking past Dan and lighting up.  
“Mick!” He dashed over and did an awkward kind of bro hug with a short sandy haired man with a goatee. Dan saw pictures before from the days in Uni but he'd never met him.  
“Phil how's it going?” A dark haired man with a petite blond woman on his arm pulled Phil into another hug.  
“Daemon, Alison, it's good to see you guys!” Phil said.  
“Man I have got some stories and I have also got some questions for you.” Mick laughed as they turned to go inside.  
“Phil you remember my wife, Mary?” A woman Dan previously didn't see smiled up at Phil from Mick's side.  
“Did you come alone?” She asked with a frown.  
“Oh! No! I-” Phil spun around “Dan!” He beckoned Dan over and sheepishly introduced him to the group.  
  
After all introductions and pleasantries were done being exchanged they made their way inside to find a table in the large ballroom that was slowly being filled with people. They quickly set claim to a table in the far corner from all of the festivities, yet fairly close to the open bar.  
  
  
“Phil, mate, I can't believe you're out there going on tours and working for radio stations and award shows. We've all seen it.” Daemon smiled.  
  
“Yeah, they said they couldn't believe it but I told them they must not know you like I do, Lester.” Mick laughed and patted Phil on the back.  
“They must not have ever heard about the party at Newman's.”  
Phil buried his face in his hands.  
“Oh, Mick don't tell that story.” he pleaded. His cheeks went from the pretty pink they had turned from his cocktail to a bright angry red color.  
Mick threw his head back and laughed.  
“You were just so bossy that night. I swear, mate, I don't know if I've ever seen someone drunk so passionate about a video someone else was making. I mean it was _mine_ and I was less than thrilled about it.”  
Phil just shook his head.  
“And _then_ ” He laughed.  
Phil groaned.  
“I find out that the whole time he was just trying to pick up this bloke that was there.”  
“That was not the whole reason! Your video was really good.” Phil cried.  
  
The table all laughed. Dan heard himself laugh along but didn't really feel it.  
“This guy,” Daemon said, turning to Dan. “Is the most dedicated guy I have ever seen when it came to getting projects done. I swear everyone that knew him wanted to pick apart his crazy brain.”  
“Nobody thought of things the way you do, Phil.” Alison added.  
“That's not true we all would have failed if it weren't for you, Ally.” Phil said. The rest of the group laughed and agreed.  
  
Dan ignored the insistent feeling that he didn't belong at the table and took another sip of his drink. Mary was laughing along as well. Dan couldn't remember a Mary and deduced she must have come into the picture later, the same as Dan.  
“Well I was years ahead of you guys and not even in any of the same classes and Phil saved me. Remember when he came and picked me up from that dump downtown?”  
  
There goes that theory.  
Everyone howled in laughter.  
“You guys trusted Phil to drive?” Dan asked incredulously.  
Mick wiped a tear away.  
“He was the only one of us that went out that night that was sober enough to go and get her when she called.” He explained.  
“I still have nightmares of that night.” Alison added with a wink.  
“I hit _one_ pole and nobody ever knew for sure that it was me!” Phil vehemently tried to defend himself. “None of us should have been out anyway we had that huge test the next day in Landar's class, remember?” he added.  
  
They delved deeper into discussion of classes and courses they took. Of quizzes and tests and midterms and different projects they had to do along the way. Dan listened and kept quietly to himself.  
“Dan, where did you go to Uni?”Mary asked.  
  
“Oh, erm” He paused. He wasn't ashamed of dropping out of University. His life was something he could have only dreamed of back in the day and he wouldn't have had nearly any of the opportunities that he had if he would have stayed. It was a joke online, which he encouraged, and a joke sometimes in their home a lot of the time as well. It didn't feel like a joke when he was surrounded by successful Alumni from University of York, and it still hadn't managed to make it to be an acceptable joke back home, either.  
  
“Dan studied law for a bit in Manchester.” Phil answered for him with a smile.  
“Phil with a lawyer? That blows my mind.” Alison laughed.  
Dan ignored Phil's worried glance his way. They hadn' t discussed beforehand what they would leave to the imagination and what they were willing to share with his old classmates.  
“Trust me I wanted to blow my own mind after a year of law.” He joked.  
The group laughed.  
“You remember how much you hated psychology?” Phil asked Mick. “That's what it reminded me of.” Dan's skin prickled at the thought of reminding Phil of anything besides himself.  
  
“It wasn't so much hating psychology as it was wanting to go out each night.” Mick laughed. “Mate, I don't think I ever had a wing-man like you. Hated going to clubs but you were strangely quite good at it. Must have been that showman that's been hiding in you that whole time.”  
“I was dreadful what are you even talking about.” Phil laughed. “It was you that brought home what three models?” He asked.  
Mary looked at Dan and mimed shooting herself. He couldn't help but laugh.  
“No there was that one other guy that lived in the house down the way from us. What was his name again? Georgie?”  
“Mick.” Phil was laughing but clearly looked uncomfortable.  
“Don't you 'Mick' me. You were so smooth! You two were pretty hot and heavy for a few months there. I haven't heard from him in ages though.”  
“He said he'd be here.” Alison said. “I saw he RSVP'd. What is the deal with half of those people on that list being people I have never heard of?”  
  
“Do you still talk to him?” Mick asked Phil. Dan wanted to be irritated but he was too enthralled from hearing more than the vague comments Phil would share about past relationships It was not like either of them had very many. They talked about past relationships and experiences, obviously, but Phil was never the type to go into detail at all and Dan had been so young and so trigger happy to get jealous and upset at the thought of someone else being with Phil back when there was a reason to discuss it. Phil never wanted to talk about it too much and Dan never wanted to hear it. He always chalked it up to Phil had a lot of experience in life that Dan didn't. Though, he knew he was Phil's first long term serious relationship.  
  
Phil shook his head. “No, it wasn't like it was a very serious relationship those two months, guys. People mess around in Uni, you know.” He looked like his awkward, slightly uncomfortable Phil, but at the same time like a professional. He looked like a strong confident man in his thirties talking to his old friends from Uni and it felt like Dan was looking at someone else through a screen.  
It was like staring at AmazingPhil all those years ago. A person he knew he related with and knew a great deal about but perhaps not as much as he thought.

He knew this man better than he knew himself and the thought of all those years before him, all those years with other friends and other lovers and other creative partners was always something Dan knew existed but having it spread out in front of him was a strange unsettling concept.  
For Dan it was growing up and school, a brief unhappy period of being fairly alone and then Phil. Phil had been along with Dan his whole adult life. It was a bizarre thought that made Dan feel like a child.  
  
Mary pretended to hand her imaginary gun over to Dan and he laughed appreciatively.  
He could handle the Georgie stories. If there were other stories like it he could handle those as well. He _was_ an adult these days as much as it didn't feel like it in the moment.  
He mimed shooting Phil instead and the table burst into laughter.  
  
Phil rolled his eyes and smiled softly at Dan who sent a warm smile back. Phil looked into Dan's eyes and felt his shoulders relax a bit. It was like coming back home.  
“Phew, break it up you too.” Alison cat called with a grin. “How long has this....?” She waggled a finger between the two with a suggestive face.  
“Um-”  
“I met Dan right after I graduated.” Phil said without hesitation.  
Dan slowly grabbed Phil's knee and gave it a quick squeeze to convey silently that he was up for whatever Phil wanted to tell them.  
“Damn almost ten years? And you _are_ ” Daemon vaguely gestured between them.  
Phil just smiled at Dan again and answered with a shrug. It was telling without them actually saying a thing. Dan was surprised to find himself immensely pleased with the idea of their table knowing.  
Alison turned to Daemon. “You sure as hell don't look at me like that anymore!” Daemon rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.  
“They also work together could you imagine how quickly we would actually murder each other?” He turned toward the two of them again with a more serious expression.  
“I'm just glad you found something for that weird brain of yours to be put to use somewhere you could be your weird creative self, and someone who appreciates it.”  
Dan felt a flurry of appreciation at the group of people who may not still know Phil very well anymore but who were there for him once upon a time and who see his brilliant ideas for what they were.  
  
Various strangers stopped by their table and made small talk. A girl who squealed loudly into Dan's ear as she ran to hug Alison was followed by a man with thinning hair that didn't match his youthful freckled face.  
  
“Georgie!” Mick jumped up to shake his hand, making apologetic eye contact with Dan the whole time.  
“Long time no see, mate. What have you been up to?”  
“He's brilliant. He runs his own company now. He's kind of killing it.” The squealing girl declared.  
“Bethany, it's been awhile.” Alison flashed her teeth with a large, clearly forced, smile towards her. “I saw you guys were coming but I wasn't sure we'd be seeing you.”  
Bethany pulled two chairs over from a table nearby.  
“Well we are _super_ busy these days. Georgie has his whole business to attend to so we weren't one hundred percent sure if we'd be here or not.” She smiled.  
  
Georgie sat next to her and looked over their way for the first time.  
Dan could see the color leave his already pale face and his smile fall before he plastered it back on again.  
“Phil!” He stood up and shook Phil's hand in a way that was oddly formal for having done god knows what with him back in the day.  
He pulled Bethany in close by her tiny waist.  
“How have you been. I didn't think you would be here. Just- you, don't you live in London now?” He stumbled over his words.  
Dan bit back the response that it was a less than two hour train ride and not at all difficult for Phil to travel all this way. Georgie gave him an unsettled feeling, but not in the way he had prepared himself for.  
Bethany went to sit in her own chair before Georgie pulled her onto his lap. Dan could see him tighten his grip on her. She giggled loudly.  
“I wasn't going to come but Mick convinced me.” Phil laughed. It was a fake uncomfortable laugh and Dan just wanted this Georgie guy to go away.  
“You were always such a strange guy.” Bethany said with a smile. It was something Dan told Phil nearly daily but out of Bethany's painted pink mouth it didn't sound as complimentary.  
“He really was. You would be surprised at the- the things I've seen and heard about this guy. I mean I barley talked to the guy but you should have seen him sometimes.” Georgie laughed. Dan watched as he rubbed Bethany's side with his thumb.  
“You trick a girl into marrying you yet, Lester?” He asked. Bethany's laugh was a shrill, awful noise.  
“God he better not have.” Dan said coolly, locking eyes with Georgie and ignoring Phil stomping his foot under the table.  
“Dan!” Phil scolded him but Dan could hear the mirth in his voice.  
Georgie stared at Dan in shock but didn't say another word. Bethany looked at them in confusion before turning to address the whole table again.  
“Alright so what are you all doing these days?”  
They went around the table talking about their jobs and children.  
  
“What about you, Phil?” Georgie asked. He actively avoided Dan's gaze and seemed irritated by his presence.  
“Well let's see. Phil is a famous youtuber who just got done with a bloody world tour” Mick laughed. Dan could hear a splash of venom and was relieved to see he wasn't the only one who wasn't enjoying Georgie's company.  
“This guy's worked on the radio and award shows, published books and how many world tours have you guys had again?” Daemon asked.  
“Just the two.” Phil said. He looked embarrassed but Dan could tell he was enjoying this. It wasn't often they bragged about their lives and accomplishments, even though there really was quite a lot.  
“Well we've chatted enough, I think we should continue making our rounds, don't you, love?” Georgie stumbled to his feet, knocking Bethany off of his lap in the process.  
They said goodbye and Phil let out a long breath.  
Alison shot her middle finger towards their backs as they sauntered away. “They were right you know.” Mick said warmly to Phil. “You are strange. In the best way.”  
“Thanks Mick.” Phil said quietly. Dan could tell the strange interrogation with Georgie rattled him.  
“Just the two world tours.” Daemon repeated after awhile with a laugh. “I hope you know I think it's really awesome you built all of this yourselves. If anyone could do it I'm not surprised at all it was you, mate.” He turned to Dan.  
  
“Did he ever tell you about the project he made everyone in our house be in and by the end of it we found out it wasn't even anything for school? It was just some crazy idea that took a hold of Phil and he ran with it. Whenever we asked what class it was for he would change the subject. I don't think we even found out until it was nearly over and we all put in a good five or six hours into it.”  
“By then we were all too invested to care!” Mick added with a chuckle.  
“Hey it was either that or another Buffy marathon.” Phil said.  
The entire table groaned dramatically.  
  
  
  
They shared stories late into the night, so late it was technically morning. Dan joined in every now and then but mostly kept to himself and enjoyed hearing about how brilliant Phil has always been. It wasn't news to him but it was nice to hear, nonetheless. It was nice to have Phil hear it as well.  
He saw Georgie watching them from across the room a few times and along with feeling smug as absolute hell that yes, thank you very much Phil was all his. You snooze you lose, douchebag. He also felt sorry for the man. Dan hoped he was truly happy with Bethany and if he wasn't he someday let himself be. He shook him from his thoughts and turned back to the discussion of crazy uni things the group got up to.  
  
He couldn't help thinking of all the people that were in Phil's life before he was and the experiences he shared with them. Experiences that shaped Phil into the man he loved today. Some Dan would never understand and many he would never even know about. He made his peace with that. He missed out on a part of Phil's life he would never get to truly understand but it was a small part. On the grand scale of things he couldn't complain. He already knew Phil longer than the time he spent at University. He was glad other people got to see a glimpse of such a good, unique man that was Phil Lester. He wouldn't ever really know those few years, himself. But he would know the rest of the years.  
  
“Wow it really got late.” Phil said as they made their way back to the more secluded hotel they chose to stay at.  
Dan stretched his arms high over his head before entwining his hand with Phil's.  
“You've been quiet tonight.” Phil added after a minute. “Hope that wasn't too boring and awful with all of that Georgie drama.”  
  
Dan pulled him close, caution be damned.  
“I loved hearing about your Uni life. It's always nice to learn new things about you, Phil. Or to hear stories I haven't heard and have other people appreciate you like I do. I had a good time.” He turned Phil's face towards his with his free hand.  
  
“That Georgie guy was a tool and he didn't deserve to ever touch you.”  
Phil smiled and nuzzled into Dan's hand.  
“The bald fuck.” Dan added for good measure.  
Phil sputtered with laughter as they continued to stumble back to their room, perhaps a bit more buzzed than Dan had previously thought they were.  
Sure Phil had a past, like most people do. It wasn't dark or scandalous or really all that dramatic but it was a past without Dan in it.  
Dan didn't mind.  
Phil also had a future and Dan intended to experience it with him every second of the way.


End file.
